government forces in libya claim colonel former stronghold is now in their hands after weeks of shelling leave dozens dead and many more displaced. the u.s. is said to be hit by a new wave of potentially painful revelations as a wiki leaks opens up about america's practices in its overseas prisons. and while the battle for the white house is in full swing in america this time in our special election coverage we look at the pentagon's fears of a cyber pearl harbor. a

very warm welcome to you from all of us here at. libya's government forces claim they have taken control of the opposition stronghold of bani walid but they do say the pockets of resistance still remain in a weeks long deadly assault with reports of dozens of residents of the besieged city being killed by pro-government shelling. middle east correspondent paula. we continue to receive these conflicting reports from our sources on the ground we're hearing about the army is actually withdrawing from the city or though we are hearing of wide scale killings from the government sources they say that the system has fallen when we continue to receive verified video footage as well as reports of wide scale killings of indiscriminate shelling and also the use of poisonous gas some of the photos and video we've been receiving show dismembered bodies children

who've been killed and some of that footage is coming from bani walid television that has been broadcasting these visuals almost nonstop there is still a question mark over whether or not chemical weaponry has been used doctors at the scene do report that many of the patients they were treating are suffering from toxic gas inhalation and certainly hearing the same kind of thing from eyewitnesses but again we are receiving unconfident reports that many of the shells are being fired with gas inside them as of yet we cannot independently verify this so far has been going on now for the better part of three weeks and in that time all communication in and outside the city has been hampered it took us several days to make contact with people inside the besieged city and they told us that these army forces were manning all the entrances and exits to inform this despite the fact that thousands of people have fled to neighboring sites and refugee camps we have managed to make contact with a man in the us he's asked us to hide his identity because he was afraid for his

family who are still inside. he tells us that the army is pushing back you also says quite alarmingly that he hasn't heard from his family for several days and he's incredibly fearful as to their fate the militias after. the fighting. from the from from the city. will control. the militias. there was taken. really old man in his good money he. doesn't have an ego. just a member people the numbers are really big on the first. i think about seventy buddy from the militia is the number to go on to be a big failure. six hundred from the militias on the wilds of the newly

than on the streets of the middle of the city i'm barely touched me ever since the violence started some three weeks ago residents of bani walid has been appealing to the international community for assistance moscow took up the score by drafting a statement that a put forward to the united nations security council earlier this week but that was blocked by the united states prompting a response from moscow saying that if found as odd and strange in that context and understand why such a statement had not been approved it's also course many in international community to accuse both washington and others of double standards you need to remember it wasn't so long ago that russia and china were blamed for voting against resolutions in libya and now the question is being asked why when moscow puts forward for calling for assistance in body why did is this being stopped by washington. earlier on r.t. my colleague kevin irwin he spoke to a member of libya's ruling general national congress he asked the mohamed how the

government justifies the deaths of civilians and bani walid. for you as a media and your colleagues this is you would have to take that full picture we are taking care of the family every single family so i been taking out of when i wanted houses and everything we've spoken to families you know singling them we've spoken to families at least two families and they're saying that is not the case there is an intense amount of pressure there's still well you see where the government forces attacking a place where there are our clothes hided of course it won't be easy it's like a surgical operation there will be some small mistakes but the whole picture the whole thing has been handled. better fixie there we are taking care

of all the family all the all the really all the women houses are ready for them food everything we're not getting the picture can i ask you but i know that there's been reports of chemical weapons being used in fact outies obtained a fax from doctors purportedly in the city which says victims are suffering from toxic gas poisoning we got a comment on that. lies. the guy over there. there are. human values that are very. confident there will never. been these things being used. he did lots of things like this but for. all of them they have forward again if the thing is they have value. they will never break

and they will never break. this is our t.v. now a fresh wave of embarrassment could be about to hit the u.s. as wiki leaks begins releasing over one hundred classified files this thursday this time detailing america's detention procedures including those in infamous prison such as guantanamo bay and great let's not talk to auntie's laura smith and get some further details on the story here good to see you today laura we still leading the charge for truth even though its leader remains locked up. that's right so being holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london doesn't seem to have stopped julian ourselves from working he's been there for more than four months now in fact quite the opposite in fact whenever i speak to him or to any of his supporters i say what's he doing in there they all say always working all the time and this is the result of his work starting today thursday and over the next month likely it's going to release over one hundred classified all restricted files on the rules and

procedures that have governed the treatment of detainees in u.s. custody over the last ten years these include operating manuals and of course interrogation procedures for camps in iraq and cuba abu ghraib as you say and of course kuantan him obey among the first documents to be released is the foundation document for granted tommy which was written in two thousand and two and put into force then and we can say that this document is the one that went on to shape the treatment of prisoners in u.s. military camps through the years only to abu ghraib and other military detention facilities and the documents talk of all aspects of life access to legal visits medical treatment access to that as well what possessions the prisoners are allowed to have and also the more mundane things like down to the details as kind of cigarette rationing and things like that and it also of course they all talk about

how prisoners. are interrogated violence is prohibited in the documents that have been released in writing bartz the they encourage the kind of exploitation of the fears of prisoners love of their homeland love of comrades love of family and and of course intimidation julian says that what they document is the carving out of a dark space where law and rights essentially don't apply and wiki leaks is encouraging the general public and other journalists to look through these documents pick out bits of them and then publicize it to make this information available. the general public so the law recording sting as you say they were julian assange has been holed up in a london embassy for four months now but still he's able to do his work with wiki leaks all these new documents are coming out regarding the u.s. black prison system. and i suppose among several that despite the size of the still in ecuador's embassy his health may not be doing so well what do you know about.

about certainly what the ecuadorian embassy say they say that he's losing weight and that he's also suffering problems with his vision. of him over the recent weeks and months has shown that he is increasingly pale and go into a cool sea it's quite thin and pale anyway he does exercise daily with a personal trainer who's also one of his supporters and a fellow whistle blower but of course he can't go outside so he gets no fresh air limited daylight particularly now that the winter is coming or if you can see it's quite dark outside so those things you know will be taking a toll on his health one would have thought that it's all through a meeting with britain to discuss his failing health they had previously also says that if he is to be hospitalized for example he wouldn't be arrested because of course as things stand if he leaves the ecuadorian embassy he is subject to arrest by british police but the deputy foreign minister about we're told or told

r.t. that the u.k. is unwilling to discuss not only safe passage to ecuador which would essentially own of the terms of the asylum that ecuador has offered him but also even the principle of what they do in a situation in which he was however the british foreign office says that it hasn't had any notification that julia is suffering and sick and that if it does they will consider that so we have to see how this situation progresses and do you know who's on the wrist with a live in london thank you. cyber crimes a gripping minds in the pentagon ahead of next month's presidential election as obama and romney clash over foreign policy the defense department's worried an attack on the scale of nine eleven could be repeated. and the separatism trend is growing across prices here in europe as regions think it going it alone will put them back on track all of this just ahead for you.

in the mile under god these men and women are walking one of the longest and probably the loneliest road in the world they reenacting the march into exile made by thousands of czarist russia. if i was here three hundred years ago i may have dissipated my local lord i may have deserted from the army or a variety of other crimes the result was the same what my fellow prisoners around me i've got a long and very cold walk ahead into exile in siberia yet it took them years to get their summers winters entire years a lot of people died on the way this group in the western siberian region of omsk discovered their living on the only surviving stretch of the original nine thousand kilometers of the siberian exiles track that's had no modern changes made to it began to discover that he's descended from some of these exiles and decided to

build a museum telling the story he and his re-enact is now receiving from all over the world to show them what it was like for these bloody good earnest it's scary to put the shackles on of course but it's interesting if we don't remember our history we will have no future. it's a monument to one of the czarist russia cruelest chapters. the city serves as the capital of anticommunist white russian leader and. culture shock in the civil war from one thousand nine hundred to nine hundred nineteen lost and residents who lived here though the study of the man like the maintenance of this building has remained to boo right up until the present day. we still receive hate mail saying that he hanged a lot of people and was famous for severe punishment it's all true but it was a time of civil war both sides were monstrously cruel it is sadly the theme of cruelty which links so much of history to the rest of russia's particularly of

exile for the. criminal. thanks for joining us here on our to you today i'm wrong i live in moscow with less than two weeks now before americans choose their president obama and romney are scrambling to secure a crucial last minute votes in their final t.v. debate they outline their foreign policy goals which for both think clude pressure on iran and strengthening the u.s. military power of the pentagon believe it is a now cyber crime that's the biggest threat and as part of our special election coverage our team is more important details on. america's military invasions interventions and targeted attacks have traditionally been deployed on the battlefield yet today

a significant shift in technology has created a brand new terrain for warfare the internet which most people use for communication research and entertainment is being dubbed the battlefield of the future in an era of hackers and viruses computers are something of a weapon in the emerging world of cyber war a virtual world where military strikes are invisible and everyone online remains vulnerable earlier this month u.s. defense secretary leon panetta warned that america faces the possibility of a cyber pearl harbor if online security isn't sharing things the even greater danger facing us in cyberspace goes beyond crime and it goes beyond harassment. cyber attacks. perpetrated by nation states or violent extremist groups could be as destructive as

the terrorist attack on nine eleven while the pentagon is looking to expand washington's ability to respond to cyber attacks. it's also developing procedures that allow frontline troops to have a new generation of cyber weapons at their fingertips and the army's cyber effects request format otherwise known as search is a system that allows combatants to request cyber fire operations from the u.s. cyber command some operations could include infiltrating an unclassified network inside of a ground force headquarters to disrupt their communications what the military is trying to do now is to embed computer experts when you're dealing for example with counterinsurgency you want people who know how to do forensic work on a laptop if you capture somebody how to dump his cell phone how to prevent your mini drone your backpack joining from being interfered with i mean nearly

everything even down to the to the squad level and the platoon level is starting to have hacker encounter hacker issues but it's not only tactical implementation that the u.s. is looking at allegations have emerged that washington has already launched its first offensive strike in two thousand and ten the first weapon to be made entirely out of crude targeting bronson nuclear program a computer virus known as stuxnet infected tehran's enrichment facilities with the capability to turn up the pressure inside iran's nuclear reactors what switch off the oil pipelines and tell the system operators that everything was normal the attack destroyed nearly one thousand of iran's six thousand centrifuges according to reports the virus was a joint collaboration between the us and israel more destructive things experts however warned that was. growing involvement in cyber warfare could come back to haunt the u.s. and it's a double edge sword which you use against your enemy is of eventually going to work

its way back to you everybody's looking for deniability if you start a flame or any of the other variants it's the knowledge of what they can prove who did it or how you did it you can just so you are really shocked this is happening. this soft power dimension to new u.s. policies in the digital world is reflected in its desire to win hearts and minds of the online community last year the u.s. spent nearly twenty million dollars to help foreign citizens access online material and social media meanwhile the u.s. government is working hard to spy on internet communications not just on its own citizens but foreign nationals as well america's largest overseas eavesdropping piece is in britain and the top secret facility carries out a whole range of military diplomatic and commercial surveillance the beginning of a new global battlefield where viruses replace drones and how hers may be calm some

of the highest ranking officials in the u.s. military what may still sound to some like science fiction is fast becoming a virtual reality marina r.t. new york i know it is coming to life in the heart of moscow what if scotland goes it alone and manages to get independence but the u.k. might lose its status as a nuclear state if the latest on london's atomic dilemma a whole website r.t. dot com. also online canadian customers may soon see a cigarette like warning labels put on it every day for food such as a pizza so all fizzy drinks that's the way doctors in ontario want to fight the national obesity epidemic. now the sudanese cabinet has met in an urgent session after accusing israel of a deadly strike on an arms factory. in khartoum iran also denounced the attack saying it could escalate tensions in the region tell if he has refused to comment

on reports that four of its fighter jets carried out an air raid on a plan to allegedly providing rockets to gaza but political analyst dr mohamad says it's clear who's to blame this is not the first attack again a sudanese territory. it has happened before since the war ended on gaza at the beginning of two thousand and nine there have been a number of attacks against sudanese territory and it is largely to say that israel is the country that is responsible for such as they get is. my understanding also is that after the war again is gaza the previous american administration and the previous israeli government it is your understanding to fight terrorism right on its sources israel is the country that is interested in fighting against other countries who are allegedly supplying us with weapons and supporting hamas

politically twenty minutes past the hour moscow time a pro independence parties are now at the helm in spain's basque country about elections in catalonia could bring about even more separatist forces to the forefront but it is scotland it's at the top of the breakaway trend now as it has a real chance to go it alone and south london agreed to little hold an independence referendum in two years' time further examination the separatism. tied to changing in europe nationalism bred by ways of crises has swept across a once united union scotland has just been granted the historic right to tease whether or not it wants to remain as part of the united kingdom in the next couple of years they're not the only ones across europe right now and there's a growing movement thinking nation heard from catalonia for valor scotland has been leading the way the year its independence seekers along with the cape belgium spain

and italy have all seen a rise in calls the separatism that could be set to redraw the map of europe in venice recently thousands took to the streets to demand a referendum on establishing an independent the nation republic. over in spain in the sight of catalonians marching on mass in barcelona to call for home rule is becoming more and more familiar catalonia says a people with a long history have language and identity and it has been struggling for the last thirty years to be recognized and to do there are. other areas to spain and italy is seeing similar an easement there as for several regional results the main reason is that we are being. jewish and we're in a situation worse than a colony because there's a worse one. in italy it's the highest in the world and our services are

extremely poor when you build your nation. our region our resources we cheer and that's comparable to the union orientated voters have also strong points to support their case questions of the membership and border security arrangements could muffle discontents come a referendum. and these are the realities that scorsese faces face as safe there is the only nation with the right to vote only issue it's times a year they won't really quite feel like their head but one thing. that scotland. is only going to strengthen the cool who are demanding their rights to. serve. and is the antiwar dot there we go now starting with a temporary ceasefire in syria that could be announced later on thursday u.n. arab league special envoy lakhdar brahimi earlier said the syrian president bashar

assad and several rebel groups have agreed to a truce for the muslim holiday of. someone with a similar position fighters are said they will continue in their battle meanwhile there's been a fresh wave of violence with bombings in damascus and reports of at least one explosion in the city of. hurricane sandy has struck southern cuba causing landslides and coastal flooding and the category two storm swept across the caribbean sea passing over jamaica before hitting the island several winds cut off electricity and battered buildings seven hundred fifty kilometers southeast of the capital have and hundreds of tourists evacuated from beach resorts near the cuban city of santiago the hurricane is now thought to be heading for the bahamas. let's find katie pilbeam there she was good to see you today we are talking business as usual the hourly updates now and you've got good news for travelers about more airlines to choose from indeed yes that is

going to love this because the world's second biggest budget airline easyjet is about to start flights to roll sun on the u.k. so aviation regulator has picked the airline over thirteen to fly between london and moscow and all t's poll has the details. from the spring of two thousand and thirteen to ease. jet flights a day will arrive here at most of us airport from london gatwick it will be the first time that a project carrier is operating a popular international route this is known as the decision to liberalize skies between russia and the u.k. a group or lateral agreement to each country can fly between capitals. rights holders british airways acquired b.m.i. earlier this year a spot on the u.k. so much to the irritation of richard branson's virgin airlines that was given to easy jet has promised to charge no more than two hundred dollars per seat for the first three years the russian aviation authority is thinking about opening up the

skies here to foreign budget kerry is that as things stand it will be a brave operator that comes here there have been two russian attempts to create no frills but both founded last year under huge losses. oh and let's check out the european markets which are indeed climbing for a second day not just companies including the likes of you need to leave a price of positive results at the front as you can see around the thought of seven assault of britain's double dip recession has officially ended the economy grew one percent between the second and third quarters that was much more than economists had expected as we thought were your eyes following suit along with the equities it isn't a climbing the russian ruble remains strong against the basket of cards is not for a second site which is also heading north as well with all pricing is increasing to . setting

a one point around two percent in the us also some of for us is privatization constant next year we're building our country intends to sell up to six percent in real snaps and finally percent and railway operates out russian round eyes only highly anticipated is aimed to increase both efficiency and transparency of the companies as well as to rig. to the budget earlier this year the country's sold a seven point six percent stake in top lenders over five billion dollars the moving on that we have got here i interview with french politician and see the current francois asked in a low to talk about what troubles problems faces the economy if they do stay in the euro zone.

mission free couldn't take three months for charges free. range month three. three. free. download free broadcast plug in video for your media projects for free media and don to r.t. dot com you. need to know fashionable side. radioactive fallout government betrayal the government of law and claude and claude

and claude how can the truth be revealed if there's no official evidence there was indeed a very great danger to the servicemen concert who were given no problem protection and to the people of this country generally because of radio like the full. the secrets of the u.k.'s nuclear tests exclaims.